Media Moves… TheMediaOnline’s weekly round up. Elton Ollerhead leaves Mediamark for UK opportunity.Ogilvy & Mather South Africa taps new talent for its 2015 graduate programme. GMSA appoints new general marketing manager. In short: Maria McCloy leaves Viacom. African Risk Migration wins pan-African distribution rights for SimplySecure. Volvo Cars announces new global marketing strategy. Hero flies its colours.
Who’s moved where
Elton Ollerhead leaves Mediamark for UK opportunity
Elton Ollerhead, managing director of Mediamark, has resigned from the company to take a position in the leadership team of Amazon Media Services in the United Kingdom. He will leave the company in March this year.
Ollerhead has served as Mediamark’s managing director for three years. Under his stewardship, Mediamark has successfully evolved from a radio-focused media sales house into a multi-channel marketing solutions company.
“I have enjoyed my time at Mediamark, but the opportunity to work with Amazon Media Group plays to my passions of digital media, e-commerce and targeted advertising solutions. I wish Mediamark the best for the future, and I will miss my friends and colleagues at the company,” Ollerhead said.
Mark Harris, Group CEO of Mediamark’s parent company Kagiso Media, says, “On behalf of Kagiso Media, I would like to thank Elton for his positive contribution to Mediamark and wish him well in his future endeavours. We will announce Elton’s replacement in due course.”
Ogilvy & Mather South Africa taps new talent for its 2015 graduate programme
Ogilvy & Mather South Africa has welcomed four new graduates into its business for the 2015 Ogilvy Graduate Programme (OGP). Cecile Brits (University of Pretoria), Glenn Kisela (University of Cape Town), Kara Levy (Red & Yellow) and Masego Motsoeneng (University of Johannesburg) have stared their careers with the agency group.
The announcement follows a six-month selection process in the latter half of 2014, whereby entrants from partnering tertiary institutions were tasked with coming up with a unique and creative treatment of a digital communication medium — the blog. Each of the 100+ entries entered for this year’s intake were put through a rigorous judging panel made up of both senior employees of O&M SA and representitives of the partnering institutions. Finalists were then selected for interviews conducted by senior management of both O&M Cape Town and O&M Johannesburg.
Angela Madlala, Talent Director of Ogilvy & Mather South Africa, believes that the programme has once again filled the pipeline of new talent for the New Year. “While we unfortunately cannot hire all of the talented individuals we saw from the entries, those who have pursued the challenge are graduating with an additional layer of skill in the digital media landscape,” says Madlala.
Kisela and Levy will be based at Ogilvy & Mather Cape Town, while Brits and Motsoeneng will commence their O&M journeys in the Johannesburg office.
GMSA appoints new general marketing manager
General Motors South Africa (GMSA) has appointed a new general manager of marketing. Xoliswa Ndungane, who brings with her a wealth of industry expertise to head up the department, joins GMSA as part of a career, which spans 20 years.
Originally from Mthatha and having grown up in Port Elizabeth, Ndungane attended Woodridge College in Port Elizabeth and holds a BCom degree in marketing and business administration from the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, along with several supplementary qualifications.
Within her portfolio at GMSA Ndungane will be ultimately responsible for the Chevrolet, Opel and Isuzu brands and will report to the Vice President of Vehicle Sales, Service and Marketing at GMSA, Brian Olson.
In short: Maria McCloy leaves Viacom
Urban culture loving publicist, seller of cool clothes, Accesories with Attitude, creator of African print clutches and shoes, has left Viacom. She will continue to work on the odd campaign for the company.
Who’s won what
African Risk Migration wins pan-African distribution rights for SimplySecure
African Risk Migration (ARM), has announced it has secured pan-African distribution rights for the SimplySecure mobile device security solutions provided by Beachhead Solutions, Inc.
The SimplySecure Management System is a single, configurable, web-based management tool allowing users to remotely secure all mobile devices – including bring-your-own-device (BYOD) – used within a business. The system is built for iPhones and iPads, Android phones and tablets, Windows and Mac PCs, and USB storage devices, and modules can be added instantaneously to a company’s account as they are needed.
Who’s making moves
Volvo Cars announces new global marketing strategy
Volvo Cars recently announced its brand new global marketing strategy that allows it to market and sell cars in ways never before seen in the global automotive industry.
“The car industry is one of the most conservative, least evolutionary marketing clusters in global business,” said Alain Visser, senior vice president marketing, sales and customer service at Volvo Cars. “For decades, car marketing has been following a certain pattern which is followed by the entire car industry. Now, Volvo Cars chooses to defy that logic and implement a strategy that is geared towards its own needs.”
The new strategy – the ‘Volvo Way to Market’ – focuses on four areas: marketing tools, digital leadership, dealerships and service. One significant development contained in the new marketing strategy is that Volvo will in future concentrate on three key international motor shows, one each in Europe, the US and Asia.
In addition, it will conduct an annual Volvo event to showcase its products and brand. It will also place online sales and marketing at the centre of its marketing strategy and drastically upgrade its dealerships and service offering.
Hero flies its digital colours
It’s been the trend for exclusively digital agency brands to hold sway in the digital marketing spotlight for quite some time. With the result that digital teams with immense capabilities, which are embedded in full-service agencies such as Hero, have been somewhat flying under the radar. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In the case of Hero, it’s given their digital team 18 years to amass serious digital credentials and an impressive, variable body of work that today positions the agency as masters of digital marketing channels in the ‘New Economy’.
Under the leadership of Hero co-founder and director, James Burton, a passionate digital pioneer, strategist and entrepreneur, the team has travelled the road less taken by ad agencies. Cutting their teeth on conceiving, incubating and bringing to life in-house digital enterprises and collaborations such as Rocketseed in 2000; followed by the award-winning social enterprise, The Broccoli Project and 1Address.com – a concept ahead of its time, Hero’s digital team has built a significant skillset, which is arguably unmatched in the current marketplace.
With digital work dominating its pipeline, Hero’s dedicated 18- strong digital team is currently expanding to meet client demand; and having a compelling employer brand is enabling Hero to attract and retain the cream of the talent crop. As an agency, Hero has from the outset declared itself channel and platform agnostic. The focus throughout its operations has always been first on honing the strategic thinking behind a concept so that it does the job of winning business for clients.
Note: TheMediaOnline has a job advertising service. The site is read by media professionals across South Africa. A job posting on the Media Online Costs R342 (incl VAT) and appears for 30 days. It appears both on the Media Online site and Memejobs.com.